Judaism scholars gather in FSU

More than 200 scholars attended a Jewish studies conference in Moscow. The three-day conference of Sefer: The Moscow Center for University Teaching of Jewish Civilization, a major gathering for the growing Jewish-studies community in the FSU, featured scholars from the former Soviet Union, Europe, Israel and the United States. The 14th annual event was organized by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and the Research Center for History and Culture of East European Jewry in Vilnius. The conference featured 16 panel discussions on topics such as biblical studies, modern Jewish identity and field research of Jewish communities in the FSU. A record of the proceedings will be published by the end of the year, the organizers said.